Books in Brief

Turmoil and Tradition, by Elting E. Morison (Houghton, $7.50). Born into a prosperous New York family of impeccable social standing, Henry Stimson ran the cursus honorum through Andover, Yale and Harvard Law; spent a cool five and a half years reconciling his father to his intended bride (she waited); and then let his old law partner and lifelong mentor, Elihu Root, quarterback him into a series of lofty government jobs—Secretary of War under Taft, State under Hoover, etc. Stimson never showed really top form above the timberline, however, and the very highest peaks always eluded him. In 1940, when Stimson was 72, FDR conned him into serving as a tame Republican in his cabinet (Secretary of War again), and thereby gave him a slightly belated prestige among Liberals, as well as a sort of second-row seat at World War II. Professor Morison plays it – straight in this rather obviously “authorized” biography, telling the whole story and wisely not trying to glamorize his subject. What one thinks of Stimson is essentially a matter of taste. Was he a conscientious public servant, or merely a rather dull man? Perhaps he was both.

W. A. RUSHE

Featured Tags

Turmoil and Tradition, by Elting E. Morison (Houghton, $7.50). Born into a prosperous New York family of impeccable social standing, Henry Stimson ran the cursus honorum through Andover, Yale and Harvard Law; spent a cool five and a half years reconciling his father to his intended bride (she waited); and then let his old law partner and lifelong mentor, Elihu Root, quarterback him into a series of lofty government jobs—Secretary of War under Taft, State under Hoover, etc. Stimson never showed really top form above the timberline, however, and the very highest peaks always eluded him. In 1940, when Stimson was 72, FDR conned him into serving as a tame Republican in his cabinet (Secretary of War again), and thereby gave him a slightly belated prestige among Liberals, as well as a sort of second-row seat at World War II. Professor Morison plays it – straight in this rather obviously “authorized” biography, telling the whole story and wisely not trying to glamorize his subject. What one thinks of Stimson is essentially a matter of taste. Was he a conscientious public servant, or merely a rather dull man? Perhaps he was both.

W. A. RUSHE